I had been with Nightmare for eight months now; our faces were on every wanted poster in the multiverse, and we were probably more notorious than Error by this point. We were getting so infamous that he was actually starting to pay attention to us; I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. When Ink said he hated me more than Error, I realized that to be true in battle. I had the chance to see a recording of one of Ink's battles with Error once, and he didn't try nearly as hard to beat him as he did me. That's another thing that I wasn't sure what to think about. Error still wasn't up for joining us, though; of course, that didn't stop Nightmare from trying. Once, when I asked him why he was so eager to get Error to join us, he told me a lot. He wanted Error to join us so we could protect him. The Destroyer was alone, and if we could do something to help him, it might have been able to make a difference. I understood Nightmare's motives now.
Horror was in his universe right now, so Killer and I were left to our own devices, which were games - lots of games. Killer was better at board games, physical games, and creative games, while I was better at logic games and thinking games. While he was the master of backgammon, I beat him in checkers. I didn't know why he was so good at backgammon, but it was better not to question it. When we got bored of these, we decided to bother Nightmare. He was most likely in the library, reading; he really, really liked reading. We opened the door to the library and approached him; he was in his comfy purple reading chair, reading a book. We stared at him until he took notice of us. He lowered his glasses, exhaled, and looked at us.
"May I help you?" He asked.
"Whatcha readin'?" Killer wondered.
"I'm reading a book about certain groups in the multiverse."
"Are we in there?"
"As a matter of fact, we are."
Nightmare flipped to a page, revealing a picture of him, Killer, Horror, and me.
"Who else is in it?" Killer questioned.
"Various groups." Nightmare replied. "There's the Star Sanses, the Originals, the Bad Time Trio, and others."
"Bad Time Trio?"
"Yes, a group composed of Classic Sans, Swap Papyrus, and Storyshift Chara."
"What do they do?"
"When a Frisk or Chara commits too much genocide, they can take over for the judge of an AU, and the child suffers; that's what would have most likely happened for Dust if he had the means to call them."
"That sounds exciting!"
"Yes, they have a lot of fun together."
"Brother, Horror is here." Papyrus stated.
"Oh, cool! Paps says Horror's here!" I repeated.
"How about you two go play with him while I read?" Nightmare suggested.
"Okay! Come on, Dusty! We can show Horror your checkers streak!" Killer grabbed my wrist and dragged me away.
We were met with Horror in less than a minute, since Killer was very fast.
"Heya." Horror greeted. We returned the greeting. "What's goin' on?"
"Not much; wanna play backgammon?" Killer offered.
"Uh..'m more a cards skeleton m'self."
"That's fine. Wanna play a game?"
"What game?"
"Maybe we could play pretend?"
"Who should we impersonate today?" I questioned.
"What was the name of that group Nightmare told us about?"
"The Bad Time Trio?"
"Pret' nice guys; lil' rough roun' the edges." Horror commented.
"Okay! I call bein' Classic!" Killer yelled.
"Swap." Horror quickly followed. He was not going to be the Chara.
"This is great. I'm the human. Yayyy." I sarcastically mumbled.
"I am also the human, brother! This will be exciting!" Paps seemed happy.
"Paps says he'll be the random evil human."
"Let's go to the trainin' room: more space there, and nothin' breakable!" Killer looked ready.
"Soun's good ta me." Horror started towards the training room.
When we arrived, we cleared out a space for our pretend game, and prepared for fake battle. Paps put his scarf somewhere safe so it wouldn't be harmed, and just levitated a rubber toy knife; unlike the kid's toy knife, this wasn't harmful. We also used pretend weapons so we wouldn't destroy the training equipment. After a few minutes of setting up the battle and personal preparations, we were ready for battle. Horror and Killer used harmless magical attacks while I was using a rubber knife like Paps; we had the entire room ready for our game, and started.
"Okay. What do we say?" Killer was unsure.
"I have no idea." I helpfully returned.
"Got nothin.'" Horror shrugged.
"We could make something up."
"Okay, just get into character." Killer mentally prepared himself. "Umm..okay. Kid, we are..gonna stop ya!"
"Mhm. Ya shoulda thought 'bout yer actions." Horror was preparing his harmless attacks.
"And now, you know what we have to do, don't you?" I jumped in.
Good thing kids didn't usually have much to say, if anything. We started play-fighting with Paps, dodging his rubber knife, but pretending to be harmed when we were caught; it was actually really fun, and we ended up winning the fight, since Paps laid down and 'died' at the end. We cheered and jumped around, laughing. I bet if anybody else in the multiverse saw us, they would think we were children, or insane - we would probably say both. We were just insane children.
"Wanna do it again?" Killer asked.
"Nah, 'm tired out." Horror lay down on the floor.
"I just got a great idea." I grinned.
"What?" Killer tilted his skull.
"What if we make a group? Instead of the Bad Time Trio, we could be the..something Time Trio!"
"I like tha' idea." Horror sat up. "Wha' should we call i'?"
"I don't know."
"Killer Time Trio?" Killer suggested.
"No..that sounds like you're the leader - unless you want to be the leader. Do we have a leader?"
"Leader can be maker o' the bes' name." Horror raised his hand to his jaw. "Axe Time Tria'?"
"Mad Time Trio?" Killer suggested.
"That would be awkward." I chuckled.
"What do ya mean?"
"That was kind of my motto in my universe. Instead of bad time I said mad time..heh."
"Oh..that would be awkward. Sad Time Trio?"
Horror and Killer threw suggestions around, occasionally finding an okay one, but it was always rejected. I wasn't really good at names, so I let them think of some; I had an okay name in mind, but it probably wasn't good. They actually spent a whole hour letting names fly around, and Paps left to go watch Nightmare in the shadows soon after it started. Paps had some weird habits, but he's still the best. I never really had too good of an imagination; usually, I would let Papyrus think of something cool to do, since I could never think of anything. Imagination was a gift, and if you didn't use it, you didn't have it anymore; creativity went hand in hand with that. The imagination gave way to creativity, and the creativity became a new game, or a new food, or even a new way of life! It all depended on how you used it, and Papyrus is the best at using his. Before I knew it, Killer and Horror had run out of ideas, and turned to me.
"Dust, ya haven't given a single idea. Bestow your wisdom upon us!" Killer begged.
"I really don't have any good ideas. You two can come up with something great." I encouraged.
"Nah, we can't." Horror rebounded.
"Really, I only have one idea, and it's not even good."
"Just tell us! It's probably great!" Killer jumped.
"Fine..Murder Time Trio?"
"Huh...I like it."
"'s good." Horror gave a thumbs up.
"Dusty, you're leader! We are now the newly formed Murder Time Trio!"
"Just like that? Really?" I was less than enthusiastic.
"Yeah! We can make business cards and stuff!"
"What...why would we need business cards for a group we literally stole two thirds of the name of?"
"C'nveni'nce." Horror said.
"What's convenient about business cards for a group like this?"
"We can drop them in different AUs and people'll pick them up!" Killer shrugged.
"You know what? I give up. Sure. Murder Time Trio. I don't care."
"Come, leader! We should tell Nightmare!"
"Don't call me that.."
"You'll get used to it! Come on!"
Killer and Horror grabbed both of my wrists, which hurt, but I wasn't complaining, and dragged me to the library, where Nightmare still was. He was allowed to finish his page and close the book he was reading before Killer started.
"Dad, guess what!" Killer was smiling.
"What is it?" Nightmare set the book aside.
"We made a group like in your book!"
"Aren't you already in a group?"
"We can be in two, right?"
"I suppose so, but all of you are already in multiple categories."
"Really?"
"Yes. Some of the more well-known ones are: Killer in the Murderers, Horror in the Traitors, and Dust is in Ink's Most Wanted List."
"Ink has a most wanted list?"
"Yes. At the moment, it's just Error, Dust, and me."
"That's fun. Anyway, try to guess the name of our group! Betcha can't!"
"Murder Time Trio?"
"How didjya guess?!" Killer fell to his knees in disbelief.
"The book is magical. It knew you made a little play group, and I read about it."
"Is that how ya never run out of things to read?"
"Partly. Go play, now."
"Okay..wanna play backgammon?"
"Act'ly, I can't stay lon.' Dinner wi' Pap ain't somethin' ta miss." Horror stated.
"Aww, okay. Dusty, wanna play?"
"Only if we play checkers after."
"Deal! Come on!"
Killer then grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the game room, where he had somehow set up a game of backgammon with lightning speed. We played alternating games of backgammon and checkers until we got bored of those, and started to play other games. When Horror finished his dinner, he came back and joined us, which meant there were more games to play; Paps was my coach, although he wouldn't cheat, and would stop the others from doing so as well. He's the best. Paps also played a few with us, since he could levitate pieces and cards, making the games more fun. When Paps started playing, he also won a lot. He's the best at playing games. I guess that was part of why Killer reminded me of him so much: they were so similar, apart from the fact that Killer was a murderer and Paps wasn't. They both saw goodness in people a lot, and liked to have fun. I didn't know how Killer developed those traits, but I wouldn't complain. After a while, Paps got a great idea.
"Brother?" Paps began.
"Yeah, Paps?" I looked at him.
"Do you remember that game we used to play?"
My eyelights widened. "You aren't talking about that game, are you?"
"What game? Does ghost Papyrus wanna play something?" Killer perked up.
"Please, brother?" Paps looked at me in a way that couldn't be denied.
"Oh..fine." I took a deep breath. "Paps and I used to play a game together. He really likes it."
"Cool. What's i' called?" Horror wondered.
"Find the ghost."
"That don' soun' so har.'"
"Sometimes I couldn't find him for days."
"I think the longest you couldn't find me was a year, brother. That was the last time we played." Paps reminded.
"That doesn't sound too bad. Plus, there's three of us!" Killer gained a determined expression.
"He's invisible." I enlightened.
"That might pose a problem."
"Can 'e leave a mark fer us?" Horror questioned.
"That's actually a good idea. Paps, would you be willing to leave a mark?" I requested.
"Okay, brother! I shall leave a mark of where I am!" Paps floated off. "Count to ten!"
"We're counting to ten, then."
We counted, then split up in the large house, looking for Papyrus. I got to search the top floor and the attic, which was okay; Horror searched the second and third floors; and Killer got the bottom floor and basement, which meant we each got two floors to scour. I went through a lot of bedrooms, closets, and storage rooms with no sign of Paps; he was probably on a different floor. I had to check the attic next, which was an unlikely hiding spot for Paps, but he might have hidden there. There were a lot of old things in the attic, probably from Nightmare's past life. He had told us the story of how he became goopy, and it wasn't a pretty one; he actually salvaged a part of the tree, and it was in his room. I still hadn't gone in there yet, and I didn't plan to.
The searching went on for about two hours until Killer yelled out. Horror and I rushed to the lower levels and found Killer with Paps. That took shorter than I thought it would. After we reunited, we returned to the game room to play more. Killer and Paps played a team game against me and Horror and won because they were the best team. Horror wasn't too much into board games, and I was just bad at them in general, securing victory for the board game champions. We really wanted Nightmare to play with us, but it didn't happen, sadly.
When we got tired of board games, we talked about random things for a while.
"So, how's your AU doin,' Horror?" Killer inquired.
"Lot better than b'fore." Horror responded.
"Good to hear. So, if ya could change one thing, anythin,' what would it be?"
"Pro'lly make i' so nobody's starvin.'"
"That's a good one. I'd probably make it so the kid never fell. How about it, Dusty?"
"I wouldn't change a thing." I answered.
"Really?"
"Yeah. If Horror's universe wasn't starved, and the kid never fell in yours, we would never have met. We've all had hardships, but those hardships just lead us to what we are now. I wouldn't give that up for the world."
"Huh. I guess you're right."
"Dusty?" Horror asked.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"Killer tol' me 'bout his AU; what 'bout yers?"
"You don't have to worry about it."
"'S it bad?"
"..Yeah."
"'Kay."
We had a bit of silence until Horror said he had to go home; I guess that might have sparked some questions about me in both Killer and Horror. Killer knew more about me than Horror did, but I still hadn't told him too much about my life after the resets, making sure to exclude the fact that I was literally tortured, starving, and it was like that for over a decade; I also kept this fact from Nightmare. In fact, unless there was somebody watching me, I was the only living being in the multiverse that knew. That actually seemed intimidating; I wanted to play with some dust. After Horror left, I went to my room with Paps and looked at the jars on my dresser. I picked up the one with Alphys inside, took it in my arms, and sat on my bed. She always liked science, right? She took over for the best; she wasn't half as good as he was, but then again, I never found his dust, since there was none left. Every trace, right?
I took her dust in my hands; it was soft and small, sort of like Alphys was. With just the tiniest blow, it would scatter into a million directions with no possible sure way to go; I guess that's why Alphys needed my help so much when she didn't understand something her predecessor left behind. When the magic surrounded me, I felt pure terror; I guess I did scare her out of her wits when I came to finish her. It was rather ironic: I could only feel this type of emotion when I was surrounded in dust, but dust was one of the only things that could calm me down. Alphys had a lot of happy moments in her day, and a lot of sad ones. The amalgamates were only one of her unfortunate blunders, but there were things that she had done that were far, far worse; the worst part is that she would have blamed it on me if she was caught. I guess she regarded me as a scapegoat sometimes; I didn't mind, really. In the end, I guess it didn't really matter what would have happened, since she was dead now, anyway. When I had enough of looking through the biggest mistakes of the century, I put Alphys's dust back into the jar and placed it back on the dresser.
I was tired at this point, and I wanted to sleep. I lifted the covers on my bed, slid in, and did just that after placing my camera on the dresser next to the dust. I descended into another dusty nightmare that didn't affect me any more than any other, and that wouldn't wake me up if I wanted it to. What kind of psychopath was I when screaming and yelling didn't affect me in the least? I guess I couldn't change myself; I could only look at my problems and try to keep them from surfacing. That's what people did, right? Hide the bad parts of themselves in an effort to appear better than they really are? I suppose I might have been a bit harsh in that regard: that was just something else to keep hidden from view, wasn't it?
There's just one problem with that: I didn't want to hide my true nature..I guess I couldn't do anything about that, could I?
~~~chapter end woot~~~
Dust bean has play group.
Also I have no idea if the Bad Time Trio actually does what I said they do, but we'll just say that in this multiverse, they do that.
Thanks for reading my nonsensical writing!
Bye!